MICHAEL AQUINO AND THE TEMPLE OF SET

The largest Satanic church to spin-off from the Church of Satan is undoubtedly theTemple of Set, formed by The Black Pope’s number-one disciple, Dr. MichaelAquino. Aquino joined up in 1969 while he was a U.S. army officer andpsychological operations expert at the Presidio Army base in San Francisco.

A highly educated and sophisticated man with a Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara,Aquino was the polar opposite of the high school drop-out and street hustlerLaVey. The class difference was bound to cause tension between the two men.This came to a head in 1975 when, as mentioned earlier, LaVey tried to pull a conjob on his devotees and drain them of whatever wealth they had in order toreceive the higher initiation rites of The Black Pope’s organization. The finalrupture came when LaVey accepted money for the rites and proffered little or noinstruction on the tenets of Satanism to the attention seeking dilettantes whohanded cash to The Black Pope. (38)

Aquino took his diabolical beliefs seriously. He undertook a long and detailedstudy of occultism and the rites of the Church of Satan. This academic Devilworshiper just could not stomach the fact that LaVey gave away the very advanceddegrees he worked hard to attain. He stated the church was attracting too many“fad followers, egomaniacs and assorted oddballs whose interest in becomingSatanists was to flash their membership cards for cocktail party notoriety.” (39)

Nor did Aquino appreciate LaVey’s notion of atheism and self-assertion. ForAquino, Satan was a real metaphysical being whose devotees were meant toworship and serve as their diabolical deity. This constitutes the first break betweenatheistic Satanists and theistic Satanists — a rift which has little meaning whenconsidering that either way is consistent with Crowley’s notion of inversion. Itdoes not matter if a Satanist replaces God with himself or the Devil — the ultimateend result serves the same agenda of overturning Christianity and replacing it withDevil worship. Whether the individual Satanist prefers atheistic or theistic Satanism isirrelevant. Some spin-off groups of theistic Satanists believe this rift will besettled with the emergence of the Anti-Christ in global affairs. (40)

Aquino not only claims to have Faith in the Fallen Angel but believes the Prince ofDarkness spoke to him and gave him a further revelation from Hell. Thiscommunication from the Devil was eventually written down in Aquino’s treatiseThe Book of Coming Forth by Night (1985). In this text, the archfiend identifiedhimself as Set — the ancient Egyptian name for Satan — and instructed Aquino toform a new organization called the Temple of Set (with members referred to asSetians) which was to act as a vehicle for the emergence of a new and boldSatanic Age. (41)

The trend of self-promotion and eclipsing the Christian God still survived thebreak from the Church of Satan as evinced in the statement of leading Setian DonWebb, “The mission of the Temple of Set is to recreate a tradition of self-deification.” (42)

For all of Aqunio’s squabbling over the years, he retained the key element of bothLaVey and Crowley’s ultimate concern — to replace the Christian God withsomething else. In Aqunio’s theology, it is valid to replace the Christian God withoneself and/or Satan (Set). From a Christian perspective, adopting either of thesenefarious concepts eclipses God.

Aquino’s Temple of Set became fairly popular and even converted Zeena LaVeyand her husband, Nicholas Schreck, for a time. Although they espouse Setianviews, the Schrecks have also adopted Crowleyanity, having experimented withand written about various forms of sex magick. The Schrecks founded their ownorder called The Storm, which seeks to include ancient Indo-European sex themesinto their greater purview. Like many Satanists, they have incorporated neo-Nazioccultism and racism as part and parcel of their diabolical practices.

The Schrecks recorded a CD under the group name of Radio Werewolf – a name borrowed from Himmler’s underground broadcasting network which sent out pro-Nazi messages after the Third Reich surrendered. The Schrecks moved to Germany and aredirectly associated with neo-Fascist Skin Head groups. They also produced amovie entitled Charles Manson Superstar (1989), a documentary which affordedManson a chance to rant away concerning his murderous intentions from insidethe maximum-security prison from which he shall never emerge. The Schrecksalso produced a series of quite interesting books, one of which is on the history ofSatanism in the cinema.

Many Temple of Set members are Jewish yet Aquino still hails Himmler as a greatSatanic initiate. He even performed a series of rituals at the old SS headquarters atWewelsburg Castle in Germany, where Himmler’s occult priests once tried toresurrect several severed heads and make them speak. Aquino believedWewelsburg Castle was a major earthly nexus of nefarious powers and sought totap into this diabolical goldmine. It was at this High Temple of Nazism that Aquinoclaimed to achieve an even higher initiation and further merged with hismalevolent god Set. He set down his experiences with Nazi mysticism in TheWewelsburg Working (1982). (How any Jew could join the Temple of Setis beyond reason.)

Although Aquino is a master at media manipulation and various forms of mindcontrol from his years as a U.S. Army PSI-OP officer, he still could not avoid aseries of law suites which seriously damaged his reputation. The New ReligiousMovements page, an academic site which chronicles novel spiritual practices, bestsums up the troubles Aquino faced. It should be noted that he was never chargedwith any crime:

A scandal that broke out in 1986 did much to hurt the credibility of MichaelAquino and the Temple of Set. Charges of child molestation surfaced at the day-carecenter at Presidio Army Base, where Lt. Col. Aquino was assigned. Gary Hambright, aday-care worker, was charged with 12 counts of sodomy, oral copulation, andlewd conduct. Aquino, along with his wife Lilith, were identified by some of thechildren as possibly being another man who had participated in the molestations.However, no formal charges were ever brought against Aquino, and the caseagainst Hambright was later dismissed.

In 1994, Aquino sued Linda Blood, a former member of the Temple of Set, for libel inher book The New Satanist. The book, Aquino’s lawyers said, depicted him and hisfellow Setians as “pedophiles, child abusers, murderers and the mastermindsbehind a nationwide satanic conspiracy”. This was settled out of court, with details ofthe settlement kept confidential.

The latest lawsuit, in 1997, was brought against an internet provider for failing toblock defamatory posts from an anonymous user. A person using the name “Curio”had posted over 500 messages that accused Aquino of “having participated inheinous crimes, sexual perversions and acts of moral turpitude,” according toAquino’s lawyers. That case against the internet company ElectriCiti was thrownout of court. (43)

From 1980 to 1986 worked as an adjunct professor of political science at GoldenGate University. The various scandals took their toll and Aquino retired frompublic life and turned over the operations of the Temple of Set to Don Webb and helives in semi-retirement.

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Uma resposta em “MICHAEL AQUINO AND THE TEMPLE OF SET”

wow total delusion and insanity at its best..typical christian low grade thought and mind numbness..no wonder people are waking up and by your own faiths actions over the centuries and present..your destroying yourselves..